Changes
by Just-Chiara
Summary: At first the three of them, together, it was just a form of stress release. But then Emily began to realize that Morgan and Reid were falling in love for each other. Written for rounds of kink. Spoilers up to S3. Beta read by thefrogg on LJ.


Emily remembered the night it started as if it was yesterday. She remembered the details of the case: Reid on the edge of breaking down when the unsub started streaming a live feed of the torture he was inflicting on his two young victims; Garcia angry at herself for not being able to trace it back to the unsub; Morgan slamming his fist against the table at the image of a kid forced to undress by the gun pointed at his sister's head. And then the ride in the car once they were able to finally – _finally_ – locate the sick bastard, Morgan kicking down the door, the whole team bursting in, the deafening sound of the safety of the unsubs's gun being released, the terror in the siblings' eyes, the pounding of her heart, her mind focused only on finding a good shot, Hotch's voice trying to no avail to talk down the unsub, the unsub moving, slightly and yet enough to be threatening, no time to think, her finger pulling the trigger.

The gunshot, blood, children crying, a hand on her shoulder, the ride back to the station. She went through the moves automatically, too tired now to really be able to think.

She slept through the entire flight back to Washington, only waking up when JJ nudged her shoulder gently and told her they were landing.

JJ and Rossi went to the office; they wanted to get their report done before going home. Hotch was about to follow their example, but a phone call from Haley quickly changed his priorities.

Emily, Morgan and Reid looked at one another. None of them wanted to go home alone that night; they all knew sleep wouldn't come despite the exhaustion or it would bring nightmares and drain them of what little energy they had left.

Yet Emily knew Reid wouldn't say anything because he always felt he had to prove something, and Morgan wouldn't because he couldn't show any weaknesses. Usually, she wouldn't have said anything either, but that night the need to be with someone was stronger than her pride.

They ended up at her place, sprawled out on the big couch, a bottle of wine on the table and the tv on so they wouldn't need to talk.

Reid's neck was sore from the tension of the case and he kept rubbing at it and wincing slightly until Morgan made him turn around so that he had his back to him and placed his hands on his shoulders to give him a massage. Reid declared he was fine (_obviously_) and tried to pull away, but Morgan didn't let him escape and simply kept on working on his muscles. After a few seconds Reid gave in, too tired to fight over something that felt so good.

Emily tried to find a more comfortable position: she rested her back against the armrest and propped her legs up on Reid's lap. At work they all kept their distance but this was something else and the usual rules didn't apply.

She turned her attention back to the tv screen. A band of 20-year-olds was promoting their first album answering questions with enviable enthusiasm. She looked back at her friends to make a comment on the singer's hair, but it went forgotten as soon as she saw Reid with his head turned to the side and tilted back, Morgan's lips against his. At some point during the interview, Morgan had stopped rubbing his neck and slid his arms around his body instead, wrapping him in a comforting embrace.

Unsure of what to do, she cleared her voice to remind them of her presence. They parted immediately and Reid tensed visibly but Morgan didn't let him go.

"Com'ere, Prentiss," Morgan said. "We all need it."

Apparently, she wasn't as good a profiler as she thought she was, because she would have bet anything that at that point Reid would freak out, get up, storm out of the house, or at least start babbling statistics on triangles and work relationships. Instead, he remained in Morgan's arms. "We can't," he said quietly, and neither Morgan nor Emily could tell if it was a question or a statement.

"We shouldn't," echoed Emily. Forget regulations and social conventions, if sleeping with a colleague was a bad idea, having a three-way with two of them was a disaster waiting to happen. "We work together," she added as an unnecessary explanation.

_Been there, done that_, she thought. It had been a big mistake; she wasn't cut for having a relationship with a colleague.

"It's just stress-release. Tomorrow we go to work and nothing changes but tonight this is what we need," said Morgan.

Thinking back to that moment, Emily realized neither her nor Reid were ever really against it in the first place or Morgan wouldn't have been able to talk them into it so easily.

She moved closer, kneeling down on the couch so she was at the same height as the two men. "Just sex. Just tonight," she warned, before taking her shirt off. Damn, she _did_ need it, and her co-workers were the only ones who really understood how she felt and what she needed in that moment.

Reid – _Spencer_, if they were going to have sex they should at least start using their first names – looked down embarrassed while Derek let his eyes wander up and down her body. He let Spencer go and looked at him as if asking for consent. It was strange, to see him ask the _kid_ for permission to go on, but it made sense: either they were all in or they weren't doing anything at all.

Spencer nodded slightly and Derek took off his own t-shirt before starting to unbutton the other man's shirt. Automatically, Spencer wrapped his arms protectively around his body, but Derek took hold of his wrists and gently made him release his grip. Emily ran her fingers through his hair and leaned in to kiss him softly.

As soon as his shirt laid on the floor with hers and Derek's, Emily put a hand on his chest and caressed him. Her fingers brushed against Derek's as he did the same and they looked at a each other for a long moment before kissing. She felt Spencer's hand on her hip, pulling her closer and onto his lap. She let him guide her and sat down on top of him, legs on either side of his thighs. Derek was still kissing her and had his fingers tangled into her hair.

When they broke apart, she watched as Derek kissed Spencer again. She pressed her lips against Derek's naked shoulder and then up to his neck. Spencer had a hand on her thigh, the other one resting on Derek's face as the kiss drew out.

Derek was more forward, as expected. Soon his hand was on her breasts, cupping them, stroking her nipples through the fabric of her bra.

"Wait. Bed," she managed to say before they got too far. Couches weren't made for _ménages à trois_. She got up and went to the bedroom, knowing they would follow her.

* * *

And so it begun, their secret. It was supposed to be a one-time thing, but then there was another hard case, and another, and soon enough it became their routine to unwind after a case or even after working for long hours at the office, when they knew they wouldn't find any sleep at home.

They didn't let it interfere with the job. When they were in bed, they were Emily, Spencer and Derek; when they were at the office, they were Prentiss, Reid and Morgan. Of course, they looked at each other differently – it would have been impossible not to – but it made no difference in the round table room or on the field. They had each other's back like they had before, just like they had JJ's, Rossi's and Hotch's. If the others noticed something was different, they didn't say a word about it.

* * *

Almost a year went by like that: the three of them, their special way of taking care of themselves and each other. It wasn't just sex but it wasn't a relationship either. They would eat together, drink some wine, sometimes watch a movie – and then move to the bedroom, take their clothes off and lose themselves in each other. During sex, it was easy to forget about everything else: about the horrors of the human nature, about the sacrifices required by their job, about their past.

After, they would lay down in each other's arms. Sometimes they would talk, about small things and big things, but mostly they just lay there lost in their thoughts until they fell asleep.

It was good; it was perfect. Which is why at first Emily thought she was just imagining it. Maybe she was reading too much into meaningless little things: how Derek, just for a brief second, would look tenderly at Spencer sleeping on the jet, for example; how he would stroke his hair at night until he fell asleep; how their fingers would brush ever so slightly when they passed a file or a cup of coffee to each other; how Spencer would snuggle in closer to Derek when they were watching a movie.

Little things, sure. It was easy to ignore them, easier than to deal with what they meant. So she pretended she didn't notice them; she told herself they didn't mean anything.

Until one morning she just couldn't pretend anymore: she woke up to Derek and Spencer kissing each other softly; they were both on their side, facing each other. Spencer had his hands on Derek's chest and shoulder, Derek was holding him by the waist. They parted and looked at each other smiling – and she _knew_.

Somewhere along the way, they had fallen in love with each other.

Emily didn't think they knew, not yet. They still thought it was all part of their thing: they didn't kiss when Emily wasn't there; they weren't doing anything they didn't do with her too. At the same time, though, the way they were kissing now wasn't the way they kissed her the night before. It wasn't about what they did but how they were doing it.

She wasn't angry or jealous. It wasn't like they cut her out; they didn't. They were just unconsciously leaving her behind. Even admitting a loving relationship between three people was possible, and they could make it work, it wasn't what she wanted. She wasn't in love with them.

Instead, Derek and Spencer were falling for each other and, though it meant the end of what the three of them had, she was happy for them. They deserved to wake up in the morning and have someone by their side who made their whole face light up.

She stared at the ceiling for a few seconds longer. Then she disappeared into Derek's bathroom to take a shower, knowing it was the last she would ever take at his apartment.


End file.
